Former President Barack Obama thinks the world would be better off if women ran every government on Earth for two years. President Donald Trump is not convinced.
“I love women. I think they’re great,” Trump told reporters Saturday. “But what a ridiculous statement that is, right?”
Obama made the sweeping claim Monday during a conversation with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at Salem State University in Massachusetts. Reflecting on leadership and the importance of giving younger generations opportunities to lead, Obama recalled wondering during his presidency what would happen if women temporarily took over every government in the world.
“Even when I was president, I sometimes fantasized about if you put women in charge of every government for like two years and then just kind of saw, all right, how are things going?” Obama said. “I have a strong belief that things would — they wouldn’t be perfect. But they’d be better. I’m confident about that. I really do.”
This was not exactly a new theory from Obama. He made the same argument in 2019, telling an audience in Singapore that women were “better than us [men]” and that putting women in charge of every nation for two years would produce “a significant improvement” in living standards and outcomes.
Former President Obama on hypothetical of women in charge of every government for two years: “I have a strong belief that things would… they wouldn’t be perfect, but they’d be better. I’m confident about that.” pic.twitter.com/Ss4bgKRfmp
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 24, 2026
Trump’s response was considerably less philosophical. But there is an amusing irony in the exchange: Trump’s own White House has put women in some extraordinarily powerful positions.
Trump made history by selecting Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff, making her the first woman ever to hold the position. Wiles remains one of the most powerful people in the administration, serving as Trump’s top aide and managing the White House operation.
Trump’s second administration also began with women holding several Cabinet and Cabinet-level posts, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, became the youngest White House press secretary in history.
So while Trump clearly isn’t signing onto Obama’s two-year experiment in worldwide female government, his administration has hardly operated on the premise that women shouldn’t be in positions of power.
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